A charming kart racer for sure, but one I never really got the hang of playing. The way the kart slides around every time you try to turn really threw me as a kid, and even now I can only barely manage it. Still, I have a lot of fondness for the various courses even if I can barely drive on them. Call it nostalgia.

A creative and well put together platformer that, to avoid direct comparisons to DKC2, went in some different directions. Rather than continue focusing on fast paced action, this game mixes in a good amount of more puzzley and tricky levels/mechanics that change things up. While some might be put off by this, I quite like it and appreciate that the game has its own unique flavor. It's lovely! <3

An incredibly well done refinement of DKC. Everything rough in DKC was polished here. The atmosphere is gloomy and thick, the worlds well executed and novel, the level design sharp. The two biggest additions are Dixie Kong, who is super fun to play as, and the reworked Bonus Rooms, which are now bespoke little challenge levels. A near perfect game, one of my favorite of all time. <3

As a kid, this set of 4 games didn't do much for me. I would play them and merely wonder why they weren't as good looking, snappy or fun as DKC. As an adult I can appreciate that SMB3 is actually really great, but 1 & 2 are just okay and Lost Levels is actively bad. I am still not a fan.

An amazingly atmospheric and tight platformer. While it has a few rough edges and doesn't quite have the scope or refinement of its successors, it's still super fun and I could play it dozens more times. This game was super impressive for its time, and also the first game I fell in love with. <3